Microsoft officially launched Visual Studio 2012 in September with a big launch event in San Francisco. Today, the company announced the first major free software update for the Windows application development tool has been released.

In a post on the official Visual Studio blog, S. Somasegar, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's Developer Division, writes about what's been added in this first update. It includes some additions to help developers make Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps. He states:

For Windows Store applications for Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 includes support for both mixed-mode managed/native debugging and for native ARM dump debugging. Update 1 also includes improved diagnostics and testing support for Windows Store apps, such as with a JavaScript memory analysis tool, support for data-driven unit tests, and C++ unit testing enhancements. Additionally, for developers building apps for Windows Phone 8, we’ve enabled code analysis to help improve the quality of their phone apps.

The update, which can be downloaded from Microsoft's website, also adds some additional support for making SharePoint applications, along with even more support for agile teams. There's also more support for testing apps, with Somasegar stating, "Cross-browser testing is now supported, with the ability to record tests on Internet Explorer and later replay them with most modern browsers."

Microsoft also recently released a new optional download for Visual Studio 2012 called Productivity Power Tools. Somasegar states:

Created by individuals on the Visual Studio team, this is a pack of extensions focused on further streamlining the developer experience within Visual Studio 2012, with features like colorized parameter help, a custom document well, automatic brace completion, an enhanced scroll bar, and much more.